2009 Scenario Reliability Assessment - NERC

Scenario Reliability Self-AssessmentsFRCCIntroductionNationally, the definition of renewable resources varies from state to state. While almost allstates treat solar and wind as renewable resources, many states differ on the applicability of otherforms of renewable resources such as municipal solid waste facilities and some types ofhydroelectric and cogeneration facilities. The State of Florida has defined the term “RenewableEnergy” in Florida Statutes 366.91 as “electrical energy produced from a method that uses oneor more of the following fuels or energy sources: hydrogen produced from sources other thanfossil fuels, biomass, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, ocean energy, andhydroelectric power. The term includes the alternative energy resource, waste heat, from sulfuricacid manufacturing operations.” Further the term “Biomass” is defined as “combustible residuesor gases from forest products manufacturing, agricultural and orchard crops, waste products fromlivestock and poultry operations and food processing, urban wood waste, municipal solid waste,municipal liquid waste treatment operations, and landfill gas.”The scenario assessment performed by the FRCC compared the 2017 Load and Resource Plansubmitted in 2008 to a modified plan based on each FRCC entity providing a potential renewablegeneration plan in order to achieve an additional 15 percent Net Energy for Load (NEL) fromrenewable resources. Due to climate and geography, Florida has very limited levels ofconventional renewable resources such as hydro and wind energy. Florida’s renewable electricresources would largely be derived from biomass, landfill gas, bio-fuels and Solar Photovoltaic(PV) being the dominating renewable resource in the Scenario Case. A significant assumptiondriving the development of the Scenario Case was indentifying the location for the additionalrenewable generation resources. The majority of the potentially feasible locations in Florida forrenewable resources are environmentally sensitive. Due to the restricted availability of locationsto accommodate renewable generation facilities within the FRCC Region such as a Solar PVfield, renewable generation facilities were assumed to be sited in rural undeveloped areas of thestate with little or no transmission facilities available resulting in the need to construct 31 milesof new transmission. Approximately 178 miles of existing transmission lines would need to beupgraded.The Scenario Case involved a qualitative determination of required renewable resources in orderto achieve a 15 percent of the total NEL being served by renewable resources. Three percentreduction of the total NEL is expected from Energy Efficiency goals. The remaining 12 percentis directly associated with renewable resources. A qualitative evaluation was performed toensure deliverability of the potential renewable resources for the 2017 study year. Since specificlocations for the potential renewable resources could not be identified, these resources weremodeled as connected to the nearest transmission facility for the purposes of this Scenario Case.Therefore, the incremental transmission enhancements identified as part of the Scenario Case donot include any potential facilities required to interconnect these renewable resources. Thequalitative evaluation did not identify any reliability impacts associated with the Scenario Case.However, it is anticipated there would be a need to develop operating guides in order to mitigatepotential operating issues that may develop with the potential penetration of solar resources asmodeled in the Scenario Case.2009 Scenario Reliability Assessment Page 31